I. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications and, more particularly, to sharing of an IP address for a packet data network (PDN) connection among multiple processing entities on a wireless terminal.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communications with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communications for multiple wireless terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations via transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. This communication link may be established via a single-input single-output, multiple-input single-output or a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system.
In addition to carrying audio transmissions, one use of a wireless terminal is to send and receive data carried via a packet data network (PDN). Generally, an Access Point Name (APN) is used to identify an PDN for a mobile data user to communicate with. In addition to identifying the PDN, the APN may also be used to define the type of service. Examples of such connection-based services include a connection to wireless application protocol (WAP) server, messaging services (MMS), or an IMS service (e.g., VoIP, video telephony or text messaging) provided by a particular PDN. An APN is used in 3GPP data access networks, e.g. general packet radio service (GPRS), evolved packet core (EPC).
Typically, a wireless terminal is assigned an IP address to use for data packets sent to/from the wireless terminal via the PDN connection. In some cases, however, the wireless terminal may include multiple processing entities, e.g., a modem processor and an application processor, each of which may execute applications which request network connections over the PDN via an independent transport control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) stack. Further, the wireless terminal may itself share the PDN connection with other devices (commonly referred to as tethering). In such cases, applications running on different IP stacks may need concurrent access to the same PDN connection.